In the present specification the term “mobile device” encompasses all mobile transceivers of data, for example but not exclusively personal digital assistants, mobile telephones and laptop computers. The terms “communication network” and “network” encompasses but are not restricted to computer and telephony networks wherein data is passed over the network between entitles connected to the network. “Data” is used to refer to any form of information carried over the network, for example, but not exclusively video, telephone audio or textual information.
Current mobile devices, for example personal digital assistants (PDAs), have limited capabilities in such areas as storage capacity, processing power, power source lifetime and transmission link bandwidth.
One way which at least partially alleviates the problems is to form a wireless network using wide bandwidth short range (WBSR) wireless links such a Bluetooth or IEEE802.11 either via access points or via direct wireless links between mobile devices and allowing users of the mobile devices to manually select resources to be shared.
Current networking protocols allow devices connected to the network to advertise their presence within a network but do not allow the devices to advertise their available resources and develop a co-operative networking scheme involving the sharing of resources between devices within the WBSR network ranges.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a telecommunication method which, at least partly, ameliorates at least one of the above mentioned disadvantages/problems.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of improving the performance of a network which, at least partly, ameliorates at least one of the above mentioned disadvantages/problems.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a networking system which, at least partly, ameliorates at least one of the above mentioned disadvantages/problems.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a networking protocol which, at least partly, ameliorates at least one of the above mentioned disadvantages/problems.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a telecommunication method comprising the steps of:                providing a network including at least two network elements;        broadcasting data over the network by a first network element indicating the resources of the first network element available for sharing within the data;        requesting the use of at least part of the available resources of the first network element by a second network element;        executing of a task by co-operation of the first and second network elements; and        releasing the resources of the first network element by the second network element upon completion of the task.        
The method may include the step of the first and second network elements negotiating a cost for the resources. The cost may be in the form of a monetary value or central processor time or other resource of the second network element, for example memory, storage or connections.
The method may further include the step of providing the network in the form of a wide band short range (WBSR) wireless network, for example utilising HIPERLAN, Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11.
The method may include the step of providing at least one of the network elements in the form of a mobile device, for example a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone or a laptop computer.
The method may also include the step of providing geographically distributed wireless base stations. This allows mobile devices to remain part of an overall network. The network may be provided in the form of a piconet.
The method may also include the step of providing memory, or a connection or processing power or power source or a cheap connection as the resource to be shared.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of improving the performance of a network comprising the steps of:
providing a first network element adapted to broadcast over a network data indicative of its resources;
providing a second network element adapted to select which of the first network element's resources it requires;
requesting said required resources by the second network element; sharing said required resources; and
use of said required resources by the second network element in concert with its own resources in the execution of a task.
It will be appreciated that by improving the performance of this network the performance of the network elements will also be improved.
According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a network comprising first and second network elements, the first network element having broadcast means adapted to broadcast data indicative of resources of the first network element available for sharing, the second network element having communication means adapted to request at least some of said available resources, the first and second network elements being adapted to execute a task, co-operatively utilising said resources.
The network may be a wireless network and may be a wide band short range wireless network. The network may be a piconet. The network may use HIPERLAN, Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11. Alternatively the network may be a hardwired LAN or WAN.
The first and second network elements may be any respectively, of a PDA, a PC, a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a router, a server, a regenerative repeater, a multiplexer or a codec.
The resource available for sharing may be memory, central processor time (for example to increase processing power and speed), network connections (for example in order to reduce download/upload times) or a connection to a public land mobile network (for example in order to obtain the cheapest connection).
According to a still further aspect of the present invention there is provided a networked resource sharing protocol including:
a discovery phase;
a negotiation phase; and
a fulfilment phase.
The discovery phase may include a first network element broadcasting a notification of its shareable resources over a network.
The negotiation phase may include a second network element requesting at least some of the shareable resources of a first network element. The negotiation phase may include an agreement of a cost for the use of the shareable resources of a first network element by a second network element.
The fulfilment phase may include the co-operative execution of a task by first and second network elements. The fulfilment phase may include the execution of a task by a first network element and the passing of its results to a second network element. The fulfilment phase may include the termination of communication between first and second network elements.